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Jio Phone’s manipulative launch

Jio Feature Phone is launched and everyone is going gaga about it. I also watched the entire presentation, but noticed many discrepancies during the demo. I was surprised when no news item or YouTube channels covering this event were pointing about these obvious manipulative tactics. So, I decided to put this article showing the manipulative launch in detail.

I am not going to cover the specs or details around the phone, as by now everyone has covered that already. So, let’s get straight to point, on the demo.

False screen mirroring

They demonstrated voice command capabilities by calling, sending SMS, playing music and videos during the launch event. But all these were pre-recorded screen shown as live screen mirroring of the phone. There was no cable connected to any of the two phones mirrored on screen, yet they were able to show the activities. The same demo mentioned that we need special cable to connect these phones to TV, and during the demo, they were connecting it wirelessly.

False pre-recorded videos showing live voice capabilities.

Voice commands were also pre-recorded, and shown in synchronising it with their demonstration.That’s the reason of delay in showing each command, or even the listening mode on big screen. While sending SMS using voice prompt, the screen shows properly formatted text, and we all know that even sophisticated voice recognition system like SIRI also type everything we say in all small letters. Kedar speaks “message akash sorry can’t take your call slightly busy right now”, and the same is shown on screen as “Message Akash… Sorry can’t take your call, slightly busy right now.”
If you notice, apart from capitalisation of words, it has proper punctuation marks like “…” & “,”, but also has a full stop in the end of message. This shows that the demo is an eye-wash. Voice recognition app will not add “…” and capitalise the words.

Similarly, the command to play music was open fraud. Akash speaks “जियो म्यूजिक पे वंदे मातरम सुनाओ”, and it was interpreted by “जियो म्यूजिक पर वंदे मातरम सुनाओ". Noticed how “पे” becomes “पर”? Also, the music immediately starts playing, whereas normally it takes time to load the application, search for that song inside the app and then play. But here, it is like magic, and too good to be true. Same happens with video, no app screen, just video started on full screen mode, and the screen got tilted to accommodate video. Once the video ended, the screen again came back to its horizontal position.

No high speed data for the base plan

Like any other Jio plan, voice will always be free on this phone. Special plan of Rs 153 per month is going to be available for this phone, enabling free voice calls, unlimited data and Jio Apps. Now, it says “unlimited data”, but not about its daily cap or speed. They are comparing it with 2G, so they may put a lower daily cap, like 250MB or 500MB on this plan. Once your cap is reached, the speed will be reduced to 64kbps but data will continue to work.

A special cable will be available to connect your phone with TV, and watch the phone screen on TV. This will enable you to enjoy Jio TV or Jio Cinema on big screen. But this will not be possible in Rs 153 plan, and you have to change it to minimum 309 plan, as these application requires high speed and large quantity of data. Even with 309 plan’s 1GB data, you will only be able to watch 3 to 4 hours of videos. So, 153 plan will not be giving you much high speed data to enjoy Jio apps. And that makes sense as well. This is launched in competition of 2G data users.

False emergency call demo

They said that if you long press number 5 button, this phone will send emergency contact message to pre-defined contact. But while demo, the screen shows a call to 112, which does not make any sense. Emergency message shows location details, which again is too accurate to be true. But at least it shows that the phone may have GPS capabilities.

The phone is NOT free

And the final manipulated message was to offer this phone for an effective price of Rs. 0/- only. The catch is in fully refundable security deposit of Rs 1500 for this phone. You can return the phone after 3 years and get your 1500 back. The fine prints were not disclosed about return policy, but I am sure it will have no physical or software damage policy for all returns. So, effectively, you are buying this phone for 1500, and then if you are lucky to have the phone intact for 3 years, you can return and get your money back. Also, this phone is a single sim, 4G only network locked phone. So, you won’t be able to use any other service provider’s SIM in this phone. So, you are tied up with Jio as long as you want to use this device.

Finally, the good news!


Even if the demo was fabricated, they claim these features in the phone, and they will deliver. These features may not work as smooth as shown in demo, but it will definitely work. Reliance is ensuring that it captures entire market, and they are here to make money, not charity. So, all these are part of marketing gimmick, and should work. A large number of population will be benefited from this low cost (not free, but low cost) device and lower data cost. That matters, and meanwhile Reliance will also make some profit for their shareholders. This is a game where everyone wins!! Except competitors of Jio, but they will also cut their rate, and will survive. 

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